This is the last collection of images from my Birthday Road Trip I took with Nader last year.
If you want to go back an relive any of the earlier collections of images from my Birthday Road Trip, click on the links below:
Birthday Road Trip: Houby Festival A
Birthday Road Trip: Houby Festival B
Birthday Road Trip: Houby Festival C
Birthday Road Trip: Houby Festival D
Birthday Road Trip: Mount Vernon
Birthday Road Trip: Road to Monticello
Birthday Road Trip: Independence
Birthday Road Trip: Youngville
This collection of images concentrates on two stops on the old Lincoln Highway. One is a tale of successful historical preservation. The other one is not. The one that is not is the first collection of pictures. It is of the ruins of the old King Tower in Tama, Iowa.
The King Tower Cafe was open until 2020 when it was closed during the pandemic and it never opened up again. I ate there one time and almost a second time. Every time I’m in the area, I try to stop by and see what kind of condition its condition is in.
I was introduced to the King Tower Cafe by Jesse. In his youth he had people in Clinton and on those long family road trips between Boone and Clinton his family would stop at the King Tower for a meal. The one time I was able to eat there was when Jesse and I drove to Clinton to pick up a crib for Kalista shortly before she was to be born.
The time I almost ate there was when Jay, Willy, and I went to the Maquoketa Caves State Park. We were going to stop there to eat on the way back but we arrived shortly before they closed so we were denied. We ended up eating at a pizza place that could only be classified as mid. If I had known that the King Tower would be closed forever (most likely) a few short years later I would have been sadder about not making good enough time to have one last (and second) meal there.
Here is a little bit of the history of the King Tower I lifted from a Facebook post by “The 29th State”.
If you ever drove the Lincoln Highway through Tama, chances are you spotted the distinct stucco façade of King Tower Café. Maybe you even stopped in for a bite. For nearly a century, King Tower was more than a place to gas up—it was a full-service pit stop, a community hub, a midnight haunt, and, in its own way, a piece of Americana.
The King Tower Historic District—formally known as the King Tower One-Stop—was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. Built by Wes Mansfield, the café and gas station opened in 1937 in the popular Spanish Colonial Revival style. A year later, 18 tourist cabins joined the complex. Together, it made up the kind of full-service roadside stop that defined mid-20th-century highway travel: food, fuel, a mechanic if you needed one, and a place to sleep if you were too tired to drive on. Before the interstate system changed everything, this was the model.
It wasn’t just for travelers. King Tower was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Locals came here after the bars closed. Law enforcement and over-the-road truckers alike pulled in for coffee and comfort food. Clubs held their meetings in the dining room. And every four years, you could count on someone running for president to roll through, shake a few hands, and hope the homemade pie earned them a few votes in the upcoming caucuses. It was that kind of place—always open, always welcoming, always Tama.
Inside, the walls told their own story. Murals painted in the 1950s still hung in the café. A manager’s house stood just north of the main building. But time, and disaster, caught up with it. Like a lot of small businesses, King Tower was hit hard during the COVID-19 shutdowns. Then, in August 2020, the derecho ripped across Iowa and left the café battered and broken. The owners, Jimmy and Lejka Arifi, made the hard decision not to reopen. But ironically that era was not without recognition. Of the 25 properties added to the National Register that February in 2020, only one was in Iowa—and it was King Tower.
The café and gas station building still stand. So does one of the original tourist cabins. They’re quiet now. But if you ever stop and press your hand to the wall, you might feel the hum of a neon sign, the clink of coffee cups, or the low murmur of a late-night conversation between strangers on the road. King Tower was never just a stop. It was a story—and its one worth remembering.
https://www.facebook.com/The29thState/posts/tama-iatama-county-king-tower-cafeif-you-ever-drove-the-lincoln-highway-through-/787365523964340/
The one thing that is inaccurate (that I know of) is that that the gas station building is not still standing. I don’t know when it was torn down, but I don’t ever remember it still being there. But maybe it was on some of my visits and I just never noticed it. But it is definitely gone now.
Here are a couple of old postcards that show the King Tower in it’s original glory.
One thing to note. Tama is not home to an “Indian Reservation” like the postcard claims. It is home of the Meskwaki Settlement. The big difference being that the Meskwaki people were smart enough to know that white people couldn’t be trusted to live up to any treaty they ever signed. So rather than being put on a reservation that probably would have been taken from them as soon as white people found anything of value on it, they just bought their own land. Smart.
I’m not sure about the Highway 64 referenced in the postcard. I mean I don’t want to get too deep into highway history because I’ve already been doing a ton of research on Route 66 for a potential road trip this year. A road trip that might have to be postponed because of the completely pointless war in Iran that is crippling the economy and shooting gas prices through the roof. But I digress. I’ve also been digging into the history of the Lincoln Highway, which the King Tower was on. But it seems that that it is IA-64 that used to cross the Cyclone State from Council Bluffs to Savanna, Illinois. But was truncated in 1969 and now only goes from Anamosa to Sabula. A good portion of what was IA-64 is now IA-44. Which is less confusing than say how IA-17 used to be IA-60.
All of that background for a few pictures of the remains of a restaurant that will always live in the heart of Jesse and the rest of the Howards I’m sure.
While it still sits on the O-O-O-O-L-D Lincoln Highway, US-30 which replaced the Lincoln Highway is about a mile north.
The remains of where the old neon sign used to come out of the ground.
I don’t know if breaking a window here makes a wish come true, but if you don’t want to get married don’t bring Donna Reed here.
But then again, who wouldn’t want to marry Donna Reed? She will always cover for your Uncle Billy’s incompetence!
Coincidentally, Donna Reed was born in a town on the Lincoln Highway. Maybe I will photograph it someday…
If you are wondering what it looked like in 2017 when it was still open and Willy and Jay and I stopped by on our way to the Maquoketa Caves State Park, well I did take a few photos. Have a peek:
I don’t know I have any pictures from when I actually ate there with Jesse over 25 years ago. Those would have been taken with film and I definitely don’t know where those would be… if they even exist.
But there are 2 restaurants in this post. One was a tale of a failed historical preservation. That is the King Tower. The other is a tale of successful historical preservation. That is the story of Reed/Niland Corner in Colo.
Colo is known for being the crossroads of the Lincoln Highway (the first highway to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific) and the Jefferson Highway. The Jefferson Highway is definitely lesser known than the Lincoln Highway. It went north-south from New Orleans to Winnipeg. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t actually a crossroads. If it was I would be an incredible guitar player by now.
The highways didn’t intersect. But they actually join together. The Jefferson Highway came into Colo from the north and then turned west and joined the Lincoln Highway for about an 8 mile stretch into Nevada. From there the Lincoln Highway continued west into Ames. The Jefferson Highway then turned south and went to Cambridge.
I don’t want to get into the weeds of highway history too much farther. Even though I find it fascinating.
It is sufficient to know that the Lincoln Highway and Jefferson Highway “intersected” at a place known as Reed/Niland corner. Here is a little bit of its history from the Wiki:
Beginning life as a mere gas station in 1923 on the southeast corner of the property of local farmer Charlie Reed, the area quickly began attracting travels along both the Lincoln and Jefferson highways which it sits at the intersection of.[1] Reed named his gas station the Lincoln-Jefferson Station (L&J for short), and soon after added cabins onto the property to accommodate travelers.[1] A lunch stand turned cafe was built on the complex in 1926 with the help of Reed’s nephew C. Reed Niland. In 1930 the locations of the gas station and cafe where shifted to where they currently are located. During the 1920s and early 1930s, the cafe and gas station at Reed/Niland corner was one of only a handful of stops open 24 hours a day along the Lincoln Highway.[2] The cabins at the corner were replaced in 1947 by a motel. Charlie Reed died in 1967 with the gas station closing down not too long afterwards.[1]
The cafe and motel continued to be operated by the Niland family until 1995 when it was gifted to the City of Colo. In June 2025, a non-profit organization named Reed-Niland Corner Inc was formed to help preserve the corner.[3] This non-profit reached an agreement with the city to purchased the corner in March 2026. Niland’s Cafe and the Colo Motel continue to serve the travelers of the Lincoln and Jefferson highways, while the gas station currently remains vacant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed/Niland_Corner
All these buildings still stand. You can have a meal at Niland’s Cafe today!
Here are the pictures I took while stopping by there:
That is it for my Birthday Road Trip in 2025. We only made one more stop. At Starbuck’s (not the stupid, evil corporate coffee hellhole, but the family owned ice cream joint) in Nevada for ice cream. But I took no pictures there. I dropped Nader off at his homestead and called it a day. A long and successful day.
Right now I’m thinking that I will take my annual birthday road trip on May 16. If you want to book a seat in the RAV4, let me know. If it is just me and Nader again, that works too. I’m thinking of doing the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway East of Boone to Clinton as my trip this year. But only time will tell if that is what actually happens. Because returning to the Tulip Festival in Orange City is also a strong contender. A very strong contender.